I'd like to preface this by saying that I do not condone with what Dr. Laura said. But, do I think that she was being racist? No, not at all. Would Dr. Laura have been more sympathetic to the caller if she were more like the doctor and was complaining about her husband's friends and family making anti-semitic remarks? Maybe. Do I believe Dr. Laura is out out touch? Yes, very. Most people in her demographic are. (I'm happy that Larry King is retiring.) I thought that above all else she was rude and insensitive to the caller. She treated the caller as though what she was saying was completely without merit and that she [the caller] was just being overly sensitive.
The situation was really as simple as stepping in to someone else's shoes which it seemed that the doctor was unable to, didn't want to or maybe it just isn't her style to do. It seemed like from the transcripts of the show that Dr. Laura had some things of her own that she wanted to sound off about. Maybe one thing being that she didn't have a right to use a certain word because of the color of her skin. Language for good or bad does belong to us all and so does the responsibility in its use.
I do believe that she has a right to voice her opinion (to a certain extent) on her radio show but I feel for the caller. I feel for them both actually.
I have been labeled as being racially overly sensitive myself when I have in the past only merely stated facts. If you did it, said it--own it, (is all I was saying.) The facts are the facts and they don't change. Over sensitive seems to be the go to phrase that people use when they are trying to blame the victim thereby escaping accountability, social and otherwise.
I have been made to feel as though I have no rights to an opinion even on my own blog that I thought no one read. Yes, I have used bad words as a form of self expression. Yes, my blog started out as a way to make fun of people (mainly celebrities) for profit. It didn't remain that way because making fun of people is hard work for me because I'm not naturally a mean person and moreover it just felt wrong. Other people do it and say far worse than I could ever imagine but nothing I ever wrote was to be taken as literally as it has been made out to be. ( I'll take that as a lesson learned and guess what? I own it). "Move over, Over- Sensitive and say hello to Brave."
No, it's just unlike others I "don't hang my shit on other people". ( Madonna's words-- not mine.) My personality is multifaceted and I'm not hard; I have a heart ( a big compassionate one) but this is where I greatly differ from others that I have been compared to. I have never put a loaded, color coded, group identifying adjective in front of any of the dirty words that I have written or spoken there by disapasparaging anyone because of their race, creed or religion. To do that is wrong and down right low. Besides every bad deed must be atoned for somewhere-- "Help! Someone all the karma police!" It also has an air of illegality to it ( especially in print) that also makes me want to stay away from any base urges that creep up along side of me while sometimes going out on a limb to prove a point and or to win an argument. I'm also not one to trample on someone else's Civil Rights.
One would think that I'm one of the good guys in the blogosphere realm so to speak because at least I'm conscientious. I never dropped the N word once let alone eleven times on a radio show or in the office for that matter but yet even I am made to feel that I don't have a right to an opinion maybe because I'm a woman and when people see me they have their own image and ideas of what I'm supposed to be based on what I look like. Although they have no idea of who I am, where I come from or what's in my heart.
It's sad that no one sees Dr. Laura's point, although it's difficult and there is a lot to get around (that pesky use of one word that quite honestly no one, no matter what color they are should or want to use. Yes, rappers and comedians I'm talking to you too.) She did have one.
Image via vegasrex.com
